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Reasons for Wide Applications of the Aluminum Bus Bar 2013-11-08

The bus bar can be generally divided into the copper bus bar, the aluminum bus bar as well as the copper clad aluminum bus bar, short for the CCA busbar in accordance with the bus bar material. The aluminum can only be plated with copper directly after it is galvanized or plated with other metals. As a result, the copper clad aluminum bus bar has been applied by some countries for the reason that it is endowed with the electrical conductivity of copper as well as the small density of aluminum. However, users should pay attention to the oxidation between cooper and aluminum since it may lead to larger resistance, reduced current carrying capability as well as the short-circuit accidents.

As the most widely-used bus bar, the aluminum bus bar has been popularized around the world due to the advantages of aluminum such as the low costs, the easy processing, the light weight and the convenient installation and transportation. There may be several reasons accounting for the replacement of the aluminum bus bar for copper busbars. First of all, it is the ecological benefits. It is known that aluminum reserves are much larger compared with the copper reserves since plenty of copper has been applied in the past few years. In consideration of such factors as sustainable development and resource conservation, the aluminum bus bar is our top choice.

In addition, it is the economic benefit including the costs for initial purchase, maintenance costs as well as the resetting costs. Although electrical conductivity of the copper is higher than that of the aluminum with the same volume, the electrical conductivity of the aluminum is twice higher than that of the copper with the same weight. According to current market prices, the price for aluminum per ton is only 30 percent of that for the copper. Obviously, economical efficiency of the aluminum bus bar is self-explanatory. Moreover, line loss of the aluminum bus bar is greatly reduced since its sectional area is enlarged. Consequently, costs for operation and maintenance are also decreased. Besides, the polymer polyester film with high pressure resistance and strong stability is used as the insulation material for the modern aluminum bus bar. As a result, the resetting costs are diminished since its service life is longer.

Though the mechanical strength of the pure aluminum is lower than that of the copper, it can be solved by adding small amounts of metallic elements such as manganese and magnesium, thus avoiding such problems as deformation, collapse, corrosive pitting and creepage. As for the oxidation of the aluminum owing to its active chemical properties, it can also be solved by adding certain metal elements such as manganese and chromium or by electrostatic spraying such as the polyester powder.